Arkansas school board official resigns in wake of anti-gay rant on Facebook

The Arkansas school board official, who posted a homophobic rant on Facebook where he encouraged gay kids to kill themselves, has resigned.

The Midland School Board said Monday that Clint McCance, who just weeks ago posted, “I also enjoy the fact that they [gays] often give each other aids and die,” submitted his letter of resignation, and it was the board’s “unanimous decision” to accept it.

In his single paragraph, typed resignation letter, McCance said, “I did not represent my school or my position well with my statements online. I am sorry for all the trouble it has caused the school district, and those people that I love in this school system.”

Copy of McCance’s resignation here (click to enlarge);

Just weeks ago, Clint McCance, vice president of the Midland School Board in Pleasant Plains, Ark, responding to a call to wear purple on Oct. 20 to support LGBT youth have committed suicide, posted the following message on his Facebook page:

“Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE.”

McCance has never quite retracted his statements, telling Anderson Cooper, in an interview last Thursday, that his “strong language” was “too emotional,” and that he “picked the wrong words to use.”

When asked if the words “fag” and “queers” would still be part of his vocabulary, he told Cooper that was “in the future” and he couldn’t say for sure.